


Shore Leave

by misura



Category: Sahara (2005)
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 06:54:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1735283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Is it me, or do these parties get more boring every time we drag something up?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shore Leave

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: _Dirk/Al down time_ (cynicalshoes)

"Is it me, or do these parties get more boring every time we drag something up?" Al asked, looking around with the air of someone who feels he should get paid to be there, and paid well.

The Admiral's speech had been short and sweet - no complaints there. Sadly, the guys who'd come after hadn't shown the same level of restraint. Their English hadn't been so hot, either, which hadn't helped. Honestly, Al didn't know why they'd bothered at all; he, for one, would have been just as happy not understanding a word they'd been saying.

On the other hand, Al supposed he should be glad that at least that obligatory part of the evening was over and done with. Now, there was just the food, the local 'artsy' music and the other guests to deal with.

"They've got some pretty nice stuff at the buffet," Rudi reported, holding the full plate to prove it. Al recognized maybe half of the things on there - good thing Rudi was pretty adventurous when it came to food, probably. He'd be able to point out all the good ones to Al later on. More importantly, he'd also be able to point out the ones that would get Dirk to make funny faces while trying to swallow them.

"Great," Al said. "Where's Dirk? Please tell me he hasn't wiggled out of this one."

Rudi shrugged. "Maybe he got a hot tip or something."

"Oh, I've got a hot tip for him, all right." Al put up with a lot for the sake of friendship, but he really did draw the line at Dirk making him suffer these kinds of things all by his lonesome. Or, well, with Rudi, who was a nice guy, clearly, if a bit too focused on food. Computers. That sort of stuff.

"No, wait, he's over there." Rudi pointed with what might be a leg of chicken, or not.

"Chatting up a girl," Al noted. "I didn't know they had any of those around here."

Rudi chuckled. Al decided not to ask what was so damn funny. Dirk had an effect on girls; it was a well-documented, if often misunderstood fact. It didn't mean he was more attractive than Al, for one, or more suave. It just meant Dirk was, well, Dirk.

"I heard we're headed for Japan next." All kinds of fish and algae and sushi at the buffet there, probably. A culinary experience worth looking forward to, no doubt.

"Two weeks," Rudi said. "Maybe ten days, if the repairs go well."

"Do they ever?" These days, it seemed even too much to ask they remain within the agreed upon budget, let alone within the agreed upon span of time. And then people wondered why Al preferred to do his own repairs whenever possible.

Rudi looked like he was seriously considering the question.

Al sighed. "Well, I guess it'll be nice to get a bit of down time." He'd do a bit of checking up on the repairs people, too, of course - just to make sure they weren't going to be cheating the Admiral too much.

 

The next day, unsurprisingly, the girl Dirk had been spotted with was neither seen nor mentioned. Al wasn't entirely clear on why Dirk bothered with girls, anyway, but he supposed they were to Dirk what the buffet was to Rudi: a way to pass the time during what would otherwise have been an intolerably boring occasion. Plus, he did suppose some of them were kind of nice.

"This is the life, huh?" Dirk asked, because he forever went around jinxing things.

Al would have told him to shut his stupid mouth - just lie back and soak in the sunlight, baby, except that with Dirk, that sort of thing generally had the opposite effect of what had been intended.

"It's okay," he said instead. "I guess."

"You kidding me? White sand beach, perfect water - "

"Charming company," Al said, referring to his humble self. Obviously.

"I was trying to keep it modest," Dirk said, completely missing Al's point. Obviously. "But yes, that, too. Hey, you play your cards right, you can rub some sun screen on me later, how's that?"

"You can rub some on me right now." In Al's experience, applying sun screen before you got burnt generally worked better than doing it after.

"Why, something wrong with your hands?" Dirk asked, although he did toss over the sun screen.

"Nope," Al said. "And thanks to a careful application of sun screen, the rest of me should be fine, too. No burn spots for the Al meister this time around, no sir. Hey, you want some of this, too?"

"I think I'll take a swim," Dirk said, getting up. He was still taller than Al, which was as clear a proof of there being no justice in the world as Al'd ever seen. (Well, that whole business with the Navy had helped, too - not that he minded so much anymore these days, seeing as how it'd all turned out more or less okay in the end.)

"Oh, fine. You don't want to talk to me, you can just say so."

"Yeah," Dirk said. "You know what, you're right. I don't want to talk to you."

"Well, thank you for your honesty. Thank you very kindly."

Dirk grinned at him. "I'd love to go swimming with you, though."

"Swimming?" Al considered pointing out he'd just put on sun screen. "Is that what they're calling it these days? Going swimming?"

"I meant swimming. Just swimming," Dirk said. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

"Yeah," Al said. "Sure. That's what they all say."

"They? Who?"

"Nobody you need to worry your pretty head about," Al said, walking towards the water. "Last one in does dishes for a week?"

"Oh, no fair," Dirk protested, even though he was running already.

"That's life for you, buddy," Al said, attempting a tackle that didn't quite turn out the way he'd hoped.

Dirk just laughed and ran on, and Al decided that what the heck, he'd done worse things than dishes.


End file.
